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20,000 Protest Election Fraud in Iraq Leading Sunnis Scorned as Baathists The question of whether the December 15 elections might contribute to social peace in Iraq (always a chancy proposition) began to clarify on Friday. The guerrilla war raged with full fury, as two GIs were killed in Baghdad by a roadside bomb. A suicide […]

Kashmir Earthquake Victims Tens of thousands of earthquake victims in Pakistani Kashmir are facing winter with inadequate shelter, medicine and food. John Walbridge of Indiana University writes: You might want to inform your readers about how to best support earthquake relief. Apart from the obvious major organizations like the Red Cross, your readers might wish […]

Iraqi Elections: Post-Election Coalition Possibilities An informed reader writes: ‘ “Moreover, a group of Sadrists, the Messengers, ran separately from the UIA in the south and are getting 3% of the seats.” There is no such group in the IECI release in English. [Some have suggested that it might be the “Progressive” party listed by […]

Guest Editorial by Fisher: State Dept. Replaces DoD in Iraq IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION: STATE IN, PENTAGON OUT By William Fisher After a thousand days of widely acknowledged failure in the job of rebuilding Iraq, the Department of Defense has quietly been relieved of that responsibility, with the State Department taking over as America’s lead reconstruction agency […]

Sunnis Seek Negotiations with Shiite Parties Saddam says Americans Lied Saddam Hussein took advantage of being before the cameras again on Thursday to engage in some grandstanding. He reiterated charges that he had been beaten and tortured by the Americans, allegations that Washington had denied. He called the Bush administration congenital liars, pointing to their […]

Iraq Update Bulgaria and the Ukraine began their pull-out of troops from Iraq. For real news, go to the San Francisco Chronicle. Robert Scheer points out that Iran yet again won the Iraqi elections. (It should be remembered that Jalal Talabani, the Kurdish leader, is also a close ally of Tehran.) Private militias continue to […]

A Republic, If you Can Keep It Congress has banned harsh treatment of terrorism suspects in US custody and demanded a quarterly report on such activities. People like Dick Cheney who favor an imperial presidency should remember that Congress funds the government, and they don’t have to fund unconstitutional measures. that Dick had to interrupt […]

Shiite Religious Parties dominate 10 of 18 Provinces Talabani calls for Government of National Unity The Los Angeles Times reports that the secular Iraqiya list of Iyad Allawi so far seems only to have 8% of the seats in the new parliament, though that tally may increase slightly when the 230,000 or so votes of […]

Fundamentalist Shiites Will Dominate New Parliament Secularists Lose Badly Bush Poll Numbers on Iraq Fall The American public is not in a mood to be swayed by mere speeches or yet more “milestones” like the election in Iraq. All the recent brouhaha has not improved Bush’s poll numbers. As always, it is best to click […]